Over the last week, I've been working with teams and individuals to set goals. We have our school visions and we have our SLOs. Now how do we make these meaningful to us and our students? It is the students, after all, who lay at the center of the work we do. Wouldn't it be helpful if we let them in on the goals we've set?

In John Hattie's Visible Learning he says, “… goals inform individuals as to what type or level of performance is to be attained so that they can direct and evaluate their actions and efforts accordingly (p. 164)."

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When one sets out to hike a mountain, a plan must be carefully drawn up in order to ensure safe completion of the hike. Proper tools must be brought along in preparation for the challenges (steep terrain, snowy passes, downed trees, etc.). Markers must be checked along the way to ensure you are on thr right path. With a goal in sight and a plan in place, success is much more likely.

If you don't have the end in mind, and you can't anticipate the challenges that will present themselves as you hike, you'll likely be unprepared to meet the challenge set before you. You may stray from the path or take a wrong turn, or may even need to turn back to the starting point. The checkpoints along the route will be meaningless. The chances of success will have been narrowed significantly. The same thought process and preparation must be applied to the goals we set in our schools.

So how do we begin to make our goals transparent in our classrooms? Below are some ideas:

Step 1. Start with your SLOs. Display your goals in kid-friendly words somewhere that all will see it. Find a way to unveil the goal to your class that gets them excited. You might have an unveiling celebration. Maybe you've already had the kids set their individual goals, or hopes and dreams. Connect them to the whole class goal.

Step 2. When applicable, intentionally design your "I can" statements to reflect your goal(s). Then every time you teach an "I can" statement related to that goal, refer to it. Make it a big deal so they know you are at point in your path that is important to reaching the end goal.

Step 3. Individualize your goal for your kids. Make it clear to each student where they are and where they need to go. If you have AVMR growth as your goal, for example, your students need to know what the construct level they are at means. The same can be said of the DRA. Use the checklist on the back of the assessment to make it clear to students what they can do and what they are working towards. You can also use this DRA Reading Stages Checklist as a guide.

Step 4. Track your progress towards that goal. This could be done in all kinds of fun (and anonymous) ways. Maybe each student has a symbol that moves along a line as they get closer to the goal. Maybe you have a thermometer that fills up as the class gets closer to the goal.

Individually, you can have goal sheets in reading, writing, or math folders where students keep track of their progress by graphing assessment scores or checking off behaviors of strong readers that they have demonstrated, and so on. When conferring with students, direct them towards their goals. These can then become great conversation pieces for conferences with parents.

In the image to the left, you can see that cars and a road are used to track the number of letters of the alphabet each student knows.

Here is another tracker idea in the form of a thermometer..

This grid below can be used throughout a unit or throughout a year. Each dot represents where a student is at that particular time on a particular goal. Throughout the unit or year, dots would be added in different colors to represent the growth made.

Step 5.Celebrate! When you've reached a benchmark or made progress, make sure to acknowledge it with the class or with the individual.

I have seen many wonderful things happening in both schools related to goal setting. I know you know your students and are prepared to meet them where they are and push them to where they need to be.

Please contact me with questions you have about goal setting with students. And please let me know if you are doing something wonderful in your class related to goal setting that you'd like to share so we can celebrate that. I'd love to support and witness the implementation of any of the above practices in your classrooms.

On a related note...

Primary Goal Setting Template - This template provides a great resource for primary classrooms. There are several sample goals with pictures attached and a way to track achieving those goals.

My Goals Template - This template provides a good weekly check-in. It would be good with intermediate grades and could be used to tie into your big goals as a class or modified as needed for individual students as they track their progress towards their end-of-year goals.

How to Motivate Students to Work Harder - This article was shared with me by a teacher and it fits in with perfectly with the Mindset work that our district has been engaged in and can also help frame your goal conversations.